JACKIE STEWART warned Lewis Hamilton: "Don’t be a hero," in today’s Italian Grand Prix after McLaren’s ace racer torpedoed his own world title dreams with a disastrous qualifying gamble.

Hamilton, 23, who has performed so many miracles in the rain, chose the wrong tyres and was caught out by the changing conditions to start today’s race at Monza from a career-worst 15th place.

Stewart, who won two world titles at Monza, said: "Lewis is in the middle of the pack for the start – exactly where you don’t want to be.

"It’s very important he gets good solid points to secure his championship position and doesn’t worry about winning. You don’t need to be the hero of the day – you want to be the hero at the end of the season."

After setting one of the best lap times in first qualifying, Hamilton failed to fire in a fast lap at the start of the second thanks largely to an inexplicable gamble to opt for different tyres to the rest of the field.

When the fine drizzle suddenly turned to an all-out downpour with his car still anchored in 15th, his fate was sealed.

To make matters worse there was another brush with officialdom to follow the controversies of Belgium.

Valuable minutes of drier running time were lost when his car was selected for one of the random pitlane weight checks as he rushed back to change tyres.

"I suppose it’s random," said Hamilton with a wry smile. "The whole time we were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"We took a little gamble. We made the wrong decision on the tyres. We were bound to make a mistake eventually.""

When pressed on why he took such a risk with the championship on a knife-edge Hamilton replied: "I don’t have an answer for that."

Equally perplexing was the fact that Hamilton and his engineer Phil Prew were not over-ruled by the phalanx of veterans at Britain’s top team.

Being Lewis Hamilton, though, he refused to give up and won more fans with an heroic attempt to rewrite the script as he thundered through the lashing rain, seeking salvation.

But there was none to be found and he was lucky to escape unscathed after his twitching McLaren finally got away from him at Ascari chicane doing 160mph and he spun.

A new star was born as Sebastian Vettel became the youngest driver to start from pole aged 21 and 73 days as Italy’s other team, Toro Rosso, overshadowed Ferrari with their own engine.